OutsidersInfluence
by phoenix on ice
Summary: ON HIATUS: A new girl comes to hogwarts, makes friends with draco but is sorted into gryffindor, where she also befreinds harry and co. read to find out what happens...Rated for future chaps and language WIP
1. What's your name?

**Disclaimer:**Come on people, if I owned these characters I wouldn't be writing fan fic to get my fix, I'd have Draco and Harry and the crew running about tending to my every whim. Also, I'm a student so I have no money: so don't sue!! I can say however that I do own the character Alicia Winters (who you ask, well read to find out) and this story line, well actually so far there isn't really a story line, I just keep writing lol, I'm sure it'll go somewhere. Reviews and ideas are very welcome (this is not a hint, I'm just telling you to review lol)

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**Authors note: ** Ok I'm new to this so don't be too harsh if I suck lol, anyways please review and I'll put up more of the story (yes I do have more but I'm gonna try space out putting it up so you don't have to wait for ages for later chappies. Note that the more feed back I get the faster I write, and the faster I write the faster I update- I don't know how to be subtle)

Anyway, on with the story cause ya'll didn't come here to read authors notes…

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**Chapter 1:**

Draco Malfoy moved along the corridor towards his private compartment of the Hogwarts express. He wasn't exactly looking forward to returning to Hogwarts like he usually did, both of his friends, if he could even call them that, would not be joining him in fifth year as they had failed their exams that badly that their parents had removed them from the school and sent them to a private learning facility. He had never seen the point in making many friends upon coming to Hogwarts as Crabbe and Goyle had sort of attached them selves to him when they met. He was now facing what was probably going to be the loneliest year at Hogwarts. Of course he knew many of his fellow Slytherins, but they never really warmed to him the way Crabbe and Goyle did. He could already hear Potter's jabs at how his only friends had left him. Potter, just the thought of him was enough to make Draco's blood boil. 

After a couple of hours alone I'll forget all about Potter, or at least have come up with something smart to say back to him. He though as he reached the compartment that his father had insisted on. He had insisted that Draco would be better alone for the journey. Reaching for the handle to open the door, Just wants me to be extra miserable, not having any friends, like I'm not gonna have enough trouble in that depart… "Aaugh!!" Draco let out a loud screech when he opened the door (that was sealed with magic so only a Malfoy could open it) to find a girl sitting in there with a look on her lap staring out the window.

The girl startled from Draco's scream turned to look at him and Draco was sure he stopped breathing; he had never seen this girl in his life, for he knew that if he had he would remember. She had black hair that reached her lower back and skin that pail she looked white, and her eye's, Draco found himself staring into the greenest eye's he had ever seen.

"Hi."

My god, her voice sounds like, ok so I don't even know what to compare it to, but I'm pretty sure I could listen to it all day.

Realising that he was staring Draco forced his eyes away from her, "What are you doing in here, this compartment was sealed off?"

"Oh, well yeah it was, but I just broke the seal, it wasn't that hard (at the look of astonishment on Draco face), well it wasn't. And I just couldn't be bothered talking to anyone." And with that she turned to look out the window again.

"Oh, how very polite of you, well don't let me interfere with your sight seeing, after all it is only my cabin." 

The girl gave a snort of laughter and turned to face him once again. "Touchy aren't we. And for your information the reason I'm 'sight seeing' as you so kindly put it is because I get travel sick on long journeys, unless of course you want me to throw up all over your cabin."

This girl kind of reminds me of me. She's got backbone, and she's gorgeous, not the type I would go for but she's gonna have the entire male population of the school eating out of her hand.

"Um...no, that's ok, I prefer the non-vomit look I've got going." he smirked, coming in to the room and shutting the door. Turning he went and sat facing this new arrival.

"No offence, but you don't exactly look like a first year."

"Bravo on the eyesight brainiac. I'm going into fifth year."

"Me too, so how come your only coming to Hogwarts now."

"I lived in America, went to one of the schools over there, but my dad suddenly decided that nothing compared to Hogwarts, he came here back in his day, so now I'm being forced to do the same."

"Don't you want to be here?"

"Not particularly, but there's nothing I can do about it." Looking over at Draco she paused as if deciding whether or not it was worth her time talking to him. Draco recognised the look from the many times he had been on the giving end of it. I defiantly like this girl. Maybe I just found a new friend. As if she too had come to that conclusion she sat back and relaxed, "So, tell me about Hogwarts."

And so he did.

He told her about the school, about the four houses (she laughed when he sneered at the thought of Gryffindor), about being on the Quidditch team, about the teachers and classes. She in return told him about her old school, classes and being the head of her year. He told her about how Crabbe and Goyle had left and about the other people in their year, even about Potter and his little group. She told him about her old friends and enemies, and about her old boyfriend. (Now Draco hated to admit it even to himself but as she was describing her old boyfriend he couldn't help but think that he sounded like someone he knew, he just couldn't figure out who.) Draco in return found himself telling her of his past relationships and even (although he has no idea why as he had yet to tell anyone of this.) about the crush he had on a certain red headed vixen.

And so they talked about anything and everything, and before they knew it they were arriving at the station.

As they went to get of Draco turned to his new friend and pointed her towards Hagrid who would be taking her to the castle as it was her first time here. But as he tuned to leave he heard her calling,

"Wait! (As he turned to her he saw her flush) This is gonna sound really stupid but I think I know your entire life… but I forgot to get your name."

Draco too realised that he didn't actually have anything to call the girl standing before him.

"Draco. Draco Malfoy."

"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you Draco Malfoy. I'll see ya soon." And with a wink she turned to head back to the boats.

"Don't I get your name?" he called after her.

She turned to face him with a mischievous smile on her face. At that moment Draco realised that this year was definitely not going to be as lonely as her had thought all those hours ago.

"Alicia. Alicia Winters."

And with that she was gone…

**Ok, that's all for now, but read and review for updates: reviews spur me on!!**


	2. the new girl

**Disclaimer: Ok, here's the deal; I have kidnapped the Harry Potter crew and am holding them hostage and forcing them to follow my storyline for your amusement, should I get caught then I will turn to you all to carry on my courageous work.(jk rowling owns them, i'm just borrowing, with no intent of returning)  VIVA LAS FAN-FIC!!!!!!**

**Authors note:  Thanks to everyone who reviewed, it's nice to know that people read this and were willing to stick around long enough to let me know what they thought of it. About the Mary sue comment, well I hope that she didn't come across that way cause I want her to be an original character, not a nuisance, but I'm sure ya'll will let me know. Also I noticed that my italics don't come through for thoughts so I've had to change that, thankfully it was still pretty easy to see what the thoughts were. **

Thoughts = **   **

I think that's it for now, but remember, reviews = updates J (no flames please, I'm new, criticism is fine just don't be harsh)

Luv ya's,

Hugs and kisses

Yeoldecrazy1.

**Chapter 2:**

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The great hall was filled with laughter and talking as everyone waited for the new arrivals. Ginny Weasley sat listening to her brother and his two best friends, Harry and Hermione, talk about up coming classes. She let her mind wander as her eyes swept the room. Professor Dumbledore and the other teachers sat at the top of the room gazing down at the students and chatting amongst themselves.

The other students were catching up with each other and making plans for the upcoming year. Ginny always felt kind of left out at times like these as she never really clicked with people her own age. She found that she got on a lot better with Ron and his friends, but in that lay its own problems. She always looked at Harry and Hermione as Ron's friends instead of her own, so she always felt like an outsider in their little group. 

**Get a grip Ginny.** She thought pulling herself back to the present to meet a pair of bright blue eyes. Unfortunately those eyes belonged to one Draco Malfoy. And no matter how cute Draco may be, he was that big of a git that she would never be able to think of him any other way.

**Just you keep telling yourself that Ginny.**

**Shut up.**

**Oh come on, that is one premium piece of meat and you know it.**

Ginny was again awoke from her own thoughts as she found herself giggling.

"What's so funny?" Ron asked looking at his sister.

"Huh… oh nothing, just random thoughts." **Like I'm gonna tell you that every time I look at Draco for the rest of the year I'm gonna see a sirloin steak with blond hair and blue eyes in my head.**

Ron shrugged and turned back to the conversation and Ginny let her eyes travel back over the room to where Draco sat alone looking around him and just about looking as bored as she felt. She had heard about Crabbe and Goyle being removed from the school, in fact Ron had heard and had wasted no time telling every single person he knew. He was probably very much looking forward to rubbing it in Draco's face that the only friends he had had in a way left him.

Personally Ginny thought it was rather sad, but looking at Draco sitting at the other side of the room she didn't think that he looked too upset about it; in fact he looked like he was waiting on something.

**Maybe he knows some of the first years**.

Just as she turned to question her brother about this possibility Professor Dumbledore stood and cleared his throat to get every one's attention.

"First of all I would like to welcome back all students. (A loud round of applause) But before the new students arrive there is something I would like for you all to know. We will be having a new student join us this year. Her name is Alicia Winters and she will be joining fifth year (pause for the whispers to settle). Yes I know this is very exciting news but I, and I'm sure she, would appreciate it if everyone could try to make her transition into life at Hogwarts as smooth as possible. She will be arriving with the first years and will be sorted after all the first years have been put into their houses, thank you."

**So that's what Draco's waiting for. He must have met this Alicia on the train. Wonder what she's like, maybe she'll be in Gryffindor. That would be cool. She must have move here from pretty far away, she's not likely to have transferred from one of the other European schools. I can't wait till I'm older, I am so going travelling.**

**God she must be pretty freaked, starting a new school and everything. I know I would be. But by the looks of things she won't have any problem making friends; the entire hall is going gossip crazy. Bet all the guys want to know is what she looks like.**

"Wonder what she looks like."

**I'm good!**

"Ron, that is just so typical, what if she's really nice, or smart, or what if she's really mean and horrible. Do you even care or are you going to judge her just on the way she looks. Jeeze, its times like this that make me wonder why I hang around with you."

"You hang around with us cause we are the only ones in the school that can put up with you know-it-all attitude, and so what if I'm curious as to what she looks like, I'm male, it's what we do."

"So how come Harry didn't come up with something as Neanderthal like as that."

"He's just too much of a gentleman to say it, but if he's any kinda guy he was thinking it."

"No he wasn't, were you Harry?"

"I rather not get involved Hermione." Harry said looking to Ginny for help. They had found over the past years that it was safer for their health to stay away from Ron and Hermione when they got into one of these conversations.  Giving Ginny a look that clearly said 'these two are driving me insane' he said, "So, Ginny, are you going to try out for Quidditch this year?"

"Maybe."

"Come on Gin, I've seen you fly, you're really good. And you know the team could do with more players, if we had reserves over the last couple of years we wouldn't have lost have the matches we did, and with wood gone we need them all the more."

"Maybe."

"Don't make me beg."

"I'll think about it."

"I'm warning you I will make a fool of myself right now. All I want you to say is that you'll try out."

"I'll see how I feel when the time comes."

"Not good enough, come on, Ron's trying out for keeper."

Ron, who was at that time glaring at Hermione in a non believable way turned at hearing his name called.

"Huh, did someone say something to me?"

"Ron, tell Ginny she should try out for Quidditch."

"No way!"(Ginny looks kind of offended by this.)

"Why not, she's good."

"No sister of mine is gonna be on the team, I'd spend the entire time worrying about her getting knocked off."

"I can take care of myself thank you very much Ronald Weasley, and for your information I AM going to try out. For the sole purpose of annoying you!"

"Thanks Ron." Harry said with a smile.

Ginny who had just realised what had happened turned to Harry to yell at him for tricking her into agreeing, but upon seeing the grin on his face she found herself grinning too. Even though she had gotten over the crush she had on him a few years ago she found that she couldn't stay mad at him.

"I hate you."

"No you don't."

**Yes I do.**

**No you don't.**

**SHUT UP!...**

**Did it just get a whole lot quieter in here? Oh, the first years have arrived, they look scared, and I wonder did I look that scared when I got sorted, probably. So where's Alicia…. Oh! Wow! Well she defiantly won't have any trouble making friends.** (Looks over at Ron who is practically drooling) **No trouble at all.** (Looks over at Draco who looks pretty calm and more than a little smug) **Yeah yeah, so you know the new girl, it not that big of a deal.** (Alicia spots Draco and waves. Draco nods and does that half smile he does so well. Every guy in the room, including Ron and to Ginny's surprise Harry looks at Draco with envy and shock) **Ok, so apparently it is that big of a deal.**

**Ok peops, you know what to do now (review of course).**

**Thanks:**

**Bookworm; its reviews like that that make me want to keep writing, thanks.**

**Betafish; Thank you!! That is so sweet, I hope you like what I do with this.**


	3. project!

**Disclaimer: **

Personality1: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters in this story, except Alicia who is a figment of my      imagination that I decided to share with you.****

Personality2: I own them all mwahahahaha……

Personality1: SHUT UP!! You do not own them. A very nice lady called JK Rowling owns them.

Personality2: I am JK Rowling!!

Personality1: NO YOU ARE NOT!! Do you remember what happened last time you said that?

Personality2: Umm…yes.

Personality1: Do you want that to happen again?

Personality2: No

Personality1: Then tell the nice people the truth

Personality2: I'm not JK Rowling

Personality1: Very good, now on to the story

Personality2: I'm William Shakespeare!

Personality1: (Thumping head off table) Damn it!! How many times……

**Authors note:   He he he, I'm insane!**

Anyway, sort of sad that no one else reviewed lately, but anyway, I'm over it (I've talked my self into believing that it was soo good that you were all shocked and couldn't even remember HOW to review…pretty deluded huh?)

So I think that's pretty much everything, I'm trying to update regularly but it may get strained over the new year cause of exams and such, but hopefully will let you all know if that's the case.

Remember: 

Thoughts = **   **

And of course; reviews = updates J (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!)

Hugs and kisses

Yeoldecrazy1.

**Chapter 3:**

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Alicia sat alone in the common room and thought over the previous hours. Gryffindor. The sorting hat had put her in Gryffindor, without a second thought. She was sure she was going to be in Slytherin, especially when Draco had described each of the houses. She was always breaking the rules and getting into trouble, and now she was stuck in the goody-two-shoes house. At least her father would be proud having been in Gryffindor also.

The worst of it was that she didn't think Draco would talk to her if she's a Gryffindor, he loathes them, and she was really hoping that they could become good friends, they had gotten along so well on the train that she thought for sure that they would be hanging around together. Well, maybe. 

**He might still hang out with me. I'll find him tomorrow and see if he's still talking to me. But what if he doesn't want to talk to me? Who am I gonna hang out with then. That Ginny girl was nice at dinner, pity she hangs out with Harry Potter and company. Now that is one weird group. **

**Hermione and Ron argue non stop (So obviously attracted to each other). Harry, well he didn't really say a lot, but he was kinda looking at me funny. Whatever, from what Draco tells me he's not worth getting to know.**

**Ginny on the other hand was cool. She can hold her own in a conversation, she has a wicked sense of humour, and I'm also pretty sure she's the girl Draco was talking about on the train. **

**Oh- oh, Project!! Get Ginny and Draco together! I'm pretty sure I saw her looking at him during dinner, and he is really cute. Plus it'll give me something to do.**

**That settles it, Project 'get Draco and Ginny together' begins tomorrow.**

**This school might not be as bad as I thought.**

*****

"Hi Ginny, can I sit here?"

"Oh, hay Alicia, sure! Sit." Ginny said moving down the bench so there was room between her and Harry.

Hermione and Ron who were sitting at the other side of the table stopped arguing and looked over at the new arrival.

"Hi Alicia." They said in unison before going back to what they were arguing over, revision as far as Alicia could figure out.

"Do they ever stop?" Alicia asked still staring at the duo in bewilderment.

"Not really." Harry said from her right. Alicia, who had expected Ginny to answer, was caught off guard by this as Harry had been rather quiet the previous evening.

"So what classes do you take Alicia?" Ginny asked between bites of her toast.

This apparently caught Hermione's attention as she was suddenly paying close attention to the conversation.

"Well at my old school the subjects were slightly different, other than the basics that is, so when I transferred Professor Dumbledore suggested similar subjects. So now I'm doing Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy."

"Those are the same subjects as I'm doing!" Hermione said with Glee, "If you need any help catching up I'd be more than happy to help in any way. At least now I'll have someone to hang out with in class."

"I thought you loved Arithmancy." Harry said with a look of worry on his face, "you never said anything about having no-one to hang out with."

"It's not like it was a big deal or anything, it's just nicer when you someone in class to talk to." Hermione said looking slightly pink.

"But you always tell me and Harry off for talking in class Hermione." Ron pointed out with a grin.

"Yes but that's different, I'm talking about at the beginning of class, not all the way through it."

"Yeah, whatever."

"Anyway, all I'm saying is if you need any help catching up I don't mind helping."

"Um, yeah thanks, that's really nice."

However at that moment Draco was leaving the hall and Alicia, seeing this as a perfect time to talk to him excused herself and made her way out of the room.

*****

"Hay, Draco wait up!"

Draco stopped walking down the corridor. He didn't turn to signify that he had heard her; he just paused long enough for her to jog up beside him.

"Alicia." There was no warmth in the way he said her name, although there wasn't hatred either.

"So are you still talking to me, are do we have to hate each other just because we're in different houses."

"I don't think your new friends would like you hanging out with someone they hate and who hates them."

"So if I want to hang out with you I'm not allowed to have any friends in my own house, is that what you're saying?"

"I don't care who you hang out with, it's none of my business."

"Cut the crap Draco. Are you saying you don't want to hang out with me?, cause that's fine if it's what you want but personally I thought we were friends, and friends wouldn't care what house I'm in and they wouldn't begrudge me having friends in that house, but if you don't want to be my friend then just tell me now. But personally if that's the way you think then you're not the person I thought you were."

"And who would that person be?" Draco asked in curiosity, and also so that he could mull over his answer. Did he actually want to hang out with someone who hands around Potter, even if she is cool and funny and possibly a very good friend if he let her be?

"The person I thought you were? The person I want as my friend is the cute, funny, cool guy that I met on the train. The person I want as my friend is the one who told me about the house I'm now in as if it was a contagious disease. The one who described my other new friends like they were from another planet. And told me about the, and I say this in the most sarcastic way I can, wonderful teachers I would be meeting at Hogwarts."

Draco stood there staring at her.

"Well?"

Draco grinned, "So you think I'm cute then, do ya?" 

"Shut up." Alicia said grinning back at him, "So does this mean we're friends, Potter group and all?"

"I want to make it perfectly clear that I'm not happy about your choice of friends one bit, and I have no intention of hanging around them and being all nice, but if it's what I have to put up with then yeah, but you sooo owe me for giving in to that one."

"Ok, so I'm free to tell Ginny you fancy her then, unless of course you want to call it even."

Draco's face went blank with fear as he realised what she'd said, "You wouldn't dare!"

Alicia giggled and ran up the corridor, Draco at her heals.

"Are we even?" she called back over her shoulder.

"Yes, just get bloody back here so I can kill you for nearly giving me a heart attack."

She stopped and gigged all the harder, "But you should have seen you face." She said between bursts of laughter, "You looked like you were about to faint."

Draco much to his belief, found himself joining in her laughter as they resumed walking down the corridor.

"Talking about fainting, did I ever tell you about Potter fainting on the train in third year?"

"No, but you can tell me about it on the way to potions." 

**NOTES:**

**Aaah****, another chapter finished. So what do you think? What will happen when  Harry and co find out about Draco? Find out next chap as we head to Potions and other such adventures..**

**    Remember, reviews will quicken the time to the next update.**


	4. potions and other such adventures

**Disclaimer: **

I do not own Harry Potter and co. NOBODY OWNS THEM, THEY ARE REAL!!! REAL I TELL YOU AND NOTHING YOU SAY IS GOING TO MAKE ME BELIEVE OTHER WISE!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA…… (A nurse comes and gives me my medication) umm, sorry bout that jk, we all know you own them, and ya know, we love you.

**Authors note: **  

You love me; you really love me (wipes tears from eyes)

"I would just like to thank everyone that has always been there for me. My mom, my … (realising this isn't the awards for best fanfic ever that she dreamed about last night) …anyways on to the story…umm…yeah bye."

Ok people, here's the deal, I am totally swamped with work at the min and I have exams coming up in January, so I'm putting my story on hold for a bit, not for long though. All I'm saying is that I won't be updating again until the start of February so there's no point in checking in every week or what not. You can however beg and plead in your reviews for more, you never know, I may be swayed lol, anyways, this chaps a little bigger so it should keep you happy.

Remember: 

Thoughts = **   **

Thank you's are at bottom.

And of course, you all know the drill, REVIEW!!!!!!!! I like knowing it not just me reading this.

Hugs and kisses

Yeoldecrazy1.

**Chapter 4:**

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Potions was Harry Potter's least favourite class, manly due to the fact that the teacher, Professor Snape, hated him. And this year his timetable meant he had to put up with him first thing in the morning. 

"I wonder what happened to Alicia." Ron said from his left.

"Probably went to get her things and come down early." Hermione put in from his right.

"Why do we have to be with Slytherin every single year?" Ron whined. He hated having class with Slytherin as Snape always picked on Gryffindor students and favoured Slytherin as they were his own house.

Walking into class they met one of the most unusual sights they had ever seen in their life. Snape wasn't scowling, and he was talking to Alicia, who was smiling and chatting away. Then Snape moved to the side and another person came into view, Draco Malfoy.

"What the hell is she doing talking to them?" Ron whispered as they tried to get her attention as they went to their usual seats near the back of the classroom.

Professor Snape, seeing the rest of the class entering returned to his cold usual self.

"Class, as I'm sure you all know by now, we have a new student with us. As this is the case try not to foul up too badly and put Hogwarts in a bad light for her, and yes that was directed at you Mr Longbottom."

Neville cowered in his seat. Professor Snape had always picked on Neville's poor potions skills, and apparently this year was to be no different.

Harry however was not paying attention to this as he was staring at Alicia, who had taken a seat next to Draco and was quietly talking to him as if they were friends.

"Why is Alicia talking to Malfoy?" Ron whispered in his ear.

"Mr Weasley, Do you have something to share with the room!" Snape barked from beside the blackboard, where he was still writing up the assignment for the class.

"Um, no?"

"Well then I suggest you keep your mouth shut until the end of class, and you just lost Gryffindor 5 points for disrupting my lecture."

Harry looked over at Alicia and saw her give Ron a 'don't worry about it' kind of smile before going back to copying down the notes.

Thinking better of answering Ron vocally, Harry scribbled on the corner of his parchment, **_'Don't know, we'll find out after class.'_****__**

*****

"That wasn't so bad." Alicia said coming out of class, "I've done most of the covered topics already so it shouldn't take me too long to catch up, so what's next?"

"Don't know about you, but I've got Ancient runes, but later today we have Care of Magical Creatures together."

"That must mean I have Arithmancy. I should probably find Hermione, ya know, see if she'll show me the way."

"You won't need to."

"Why, do you know were it is Mr Smarty-pants?"

"No, you just won't need to find her, and by the looks on their faces you haven't told them about us being friends."

"What do you m…, oh, um right. Oopsy." Having turned around she could now see what Draco was talking about. Walking down the corridor towards them were Ron, Hermione and Harry, all looking confused and slightly miffed. Smiling brightly Alicia greeted the group, "Hi guys, whaz up?"

"What are you doing talking to him? And why were you sitting beside him in class."

"What are you up to Malfoy; did you cast some sort of spell on her?"

Both of these questions came at the same time so it was rather confusing. Hermione stood slightly to the side and let the boys do the talking, and by the looks of it, all she wanted to be doing at that time was go to Arithmancy.

Draco, who was used to Harry and Ron throwing accusations at him, was the first of the two to recover. "You may need to cast spells on poor defenceless girls to get them to talk to you Potter, but I can manage very well on my own thanks all the same."

Alicia, having figured out what they had asked, turned to Ron in a matter that suggested that she wasn't in a very good mood; "Number One. Ron, Draco is a friend and he offered to show me the way to class as I was talking to him before hand, and as I showed up to class with him, and he introduced me to the teacher and helped me go through the notes seeing what I had to catch up on, I think it was only polite that I sat beside him. Plus that just happened to be were I was at the time when class started. And no, I don't want to hear about how much you hate each other cause I've already heard it from him, and as I told him, you aren't going to stop me being friends with him any more than he's gonna stop me being friends with you guys. But if you can't handle that, fine. Draco doesn't have a problem (Draco coughs loudly), well, ok so he does but he's not going to do anything about it, so I don't see why you should either. And second (rounding on Draco), did you just call me defenceless?"

"Um, yeah?"

"I am sooo not defenceless, thank you very much, I can take care of myself and I would appreciate it if you would keep further insulting comments like that to yourself."

"But then we'll have nothing to talk about."

"WHAT? WHY YOU LITTLE, UUCH!, you just wait mister, if I wasn't wasting precious time here instead of finding my way to class you would be in so much trouble right now."

Glaring at Draco in an exasperated way Alicia wagged her finger in front of his face as if scolding a small child, which he followed with his eyes in a manner that verged on bored.

"Uh-huh. Look, I'm gonna be late for runes, catch ya later?"

The glare disappearing from her face Alicia face broke into a grin, their mock fight forgotten.

"Ok, see ya at lunch, toddles."

"Bye."

After Draco left Alicia turned to find Ron, Harry and Hermione looking very confused and in some cases (Ron) just a tad more than pissed off.

"Hermione, can we go, cause I don't want my first class to consist of being yelled at for being late, doesn't make for good first impressions."

"Umm…, sure, it's not that far anyway, we'll probably get there on time."

"Hay! What the hell was that all about?" Ron shouted down the corridor after them.

"I've already told you, Draco is my friend. If you still want to be my friend, then I'll see you at lunch time, if not, well I'll see you at lunchtime anyway cause there's only one hall and we sit at the same table."

Anything Ron was about to say would have been wasted as the girls had turned the corner and wouldn't have heard. Turning to Harry he said, "What the bloody hell just happened?"

"I don't know, and I don't think I really care. (Ron looks stunned) For all I care she can be friends with anyone she wants, so long as she doesn't expect me to go anywhere near that slimy git we're good. It might even work to our advantage."

"How's that?"

"Well, he'll be too busy being friends with Alicia to be nasty to us, didn't you notice that he was standing there in full insult range and all he came out with was one sarcastic remark? Personally I can do without the hassle of avoiding Malfoy all year."

"Huh, I guess your right, maybe she's a good influence on him or something… weird. I guess you're right, but I refuse to be nice to the git, I don't care what Alicia thinks of him; he was a git in the past, he's a git now and he's probably gonna continue to be a git in the future."

"Yeah, I know. Come on, or we'll be late for Divination."

"Oh no. We can't have that now, can we?" None the less he started walking down the corridor towards their classroom.

"Wonder how long she'll last today."

"I say she predicts your death in the first 10 minutes."

"5."

"You're on."

*****

"So what's the Arithmancy teacher like?"

"Professor Vector, he's really good, I'm sure you'll like him. Plus it shouldn't be too hard to catch up any work we've done so far, we've really only just got past the basics, but if you need any help with anything just ask."

"Thanks, so, um, what do you think about Draco, cause you were kind of quiet back there and I do want to be friends with you guys, it's just Draco was the first person I met coming here and we get on really well."

"I don't know. It sort of came as a shock that you two were friends, ok, so it comes as a shock that Draco even has friends, but I guess I haven't really thought about it. I just don't understand why anyone would voluntarily be around him."

"But it's not like he's the devil or anything, I mean why do you hate each other so much?"

"The only reason I hate Draco is that he never stops picking on everyone for what ever weaknesses they have, he shows no respect for authority, he never gives us a break. Every single time we see him he insults at least one of us, whether it's Harry for being famous or Ron for being poor, or me. He thinks he's better than everyone that's ever walked the earth simply because of his surname."

"What does he say to you?" by the look on Alicia's face was easy to see that she wasn't happy with what she was hearing.

"Well, he doesn't like me because my parents are muggles, so the usual insult would be calling me a mudblood."

"He what!?"

"Guess you really don't know him that well, do you? Well, here we are."

"Right, well at least we made it on time."

"Yeah, were do you want to sit, I usually sit at the front, but if you want to sit closer to the back its ok."

"No, I like sitting at the front as well; it's easier to get the teachers attention if you're confused about something, which I'm guessing is gonna happen a lot."

Smiling slightly Hermione sat at her usual table and Alicia took the seat or her left.

Throughout class both of the girls were slightly distracted, Hermione was going over what had happened in the corridor, wondering what Harry and Ron would get up to, and Alicia was thinking about what Hermione had told her about Draco. Scratching down their homework they left and headed toward the great hall together, both in a state of deep concentration as they tried to figure out their separate issues.

*****

"Hello! Hermione, Alicia, are you guys in there. Weird."

"Huh, oh sorry poeps, was completely in a world of my own, did someone ask me something?"

"Me and Harry were just wondering whether or not we could sit here, ya know, right beside you, like a friend would?"

Alicia's face broke into a smile at hearing this; she had sort of expected them to avoid her, "Sure, if you want."

"Cool." Sitting down the boys began to fill their plates.

"So does that mean that you guys are going to act like adults?" Hermione asked having finally joined the world of the living.

"Harry, I think Hermione just insulted you."

"She insulted you too!"

"Oh no, ya see I never act like an adult so this would actually be the first time."

"Oh yeah, you're right." 

   Grinning like idiots over their little joke the boys turned back to their food.

"So what were you two thinking about anyway?" Ron asked between shovelling food into his mouth.

"Well, I was just wondering if you guys would go on some sort of rampage over this and was coming up with ways of calming you down in case someone got hurt."

"I was thinking about Draco."

"Never mind, I don't want to know."

"Ron, I thought you guys were gonna behave like adults."

"Yeah, so long as we don't have to know anything about that ferret then we're going to be very mature about the entire thing."

"Uuch, whatever." Turning to Alicia she twirled her finger in a circle beside her ear (the crazy sign) and said "boys." Like it explained the entire thing.

"Charming Hermione, really." Harry said laughing at the semi-insult.

"Thanks", sticking out her tongue she giggled.

Alicia wrinkled her forehead before asking, "Umm, Ferret?" 

"Oh, so he didn't tell you about that, well that just won't do, will it Ron."

"Oh no Harry, it's one of my favourite memories here at Hogwarts."

"So tell me."

"Ok, so our forth year defence against the dark arts teacher was this guy called 'Mad-eye Moody', and well, he had his very own way of teaching…

**NOTES:**

**My goodness it's hard to keep going after a while, I have no idea how all these writers do it. Don't worry, I'm gonna see this baby through to the end, I just think I'm gonna need some motivation, and if any of you have ideas let me know and I might use them.**

**THANKS:**

**Writer gurl4**: sure thing, I'm trying to update on a regular basis, won't be back to February but this should hold you over. I'm planning to update at the start of every month after that. Does that sound good?

**Pam**: thank you!! I'm glad you like it so far, hope you like this chappy too. And I would just like to say that I take great pride in my disclaimers and it is so sweet of you to say that you like them. Hope they continue to make you laugh.

**Wow**: the title; well I didn't mean it like that, I meant it more like, when you have an outsiders perspective you see more things and that Alicia was going to have that sort of influence on their lives. Does that make sense?

**Hplova4eva**: So I take it you liked it? Lol, well I hope this will keep you going for a while.


	5. we're off to care of magical creatures

**Disclaimer:****    **

You can not have my money, it's mine. Do not sue, it is hazardous to you life span (as in I will hire people to hurt you mwahaha).

Anyway, jk rowling would never read this. If she did it would derail her constructive train of thought for the end of the books. 

People in suits are looking at me funny but I will not give in. 

Ok they look kind of scary. 

I will be strong.

OK OK I DON'T OWN ANYTHING, PLEASE DON'T HURT ME…man I'm weak.

Toddles.

****

**Authors note: ** 

So people, I heard that reviews are good for your health, no really they are. Um, cough cough.

Hehehe, so yeah I couldn't stay away. Who needs to pass exams anyways? Now my problem is that this is everything I have to date so I have no idea when I'll get enough for another chap. I do have an entire week between my exams finishing and classes starting again so I do intend to spend some serious time in front of the screen.

I also have some other stories in the mill, so if I get enough of them I'll put them up for your approval.

Am hoping to start updating once a month, say at the start what do you think, that way whatever new material I have will go up and everyone will know when to check back for more, sound good? 

Let me know, remember I'm still new to this.

That's about all for now; you should know the drill by now,

Thanks at the bottom

**  ** indicates thoughts

Luv you's all

Yeoldecrazy1 xxx

****

**Chapter 5:**

Ginny joined the group just as Ron was finishing his tale of Draco the amazing bouncing ferret.

**Well I guess their going to do everything in their power to put Draco in a bad light, even though she's friends with him.**

"Having fun?" 

"Ginny my darling sister (Ginny glared at him, which he ignored), you just missed me telling Alicia some of our favourite tales of Hogwarts."

"I heard. It's very nice of you to make fun of Alicia's friend like that, in fact you kind of remind me of someone. Now who could that be, oh yeah, Malfoy." At this everyone in the group (except Ron-of course) laughed hysterically.

"So what's Care of Magical Creatures like?" Alicia asked in hopes of changing the subject, she could tell that Ron did not like that comment and she didn't want a fight to start over it.

Harry, knowing how Ron was, decided that the change in subject was probably a good idea. "Brilliant. Although Hagrid usually overdoes it with the creatures he brings for the class to see."

"I take it Hagrid is the teacher?"

"Yeah."

"So Alicia, what class did you take back at your old school, was it something like Care of Magical Creatures?" Hermione asked from her seat. She'd wanted to ask about Alicia's classes back in America to see if there was anything she could suggest to make the transition easier for her.

"Study of Magical Species? Yeah, it sounds pretty much the same, only in America we looked more at the different species than actually interacting with the creatures."

"What kind of creatures did you study?" Ginny asked.

"Well, last year we did an in depth project on dragons, I even got to study some up close. My tutor, Dr Smith had an Antipodean Opaleye in the forests at his home back in Australia, so he brought some of us students out to his home for a field trip over Christmas break so we could see what it was like. It was really awesome."

"Wow, that's so bloody cool. Wait till Hagrid hears that, he'll go nuts. He's gonna love you."

"Um, Ron? As nice as I'm sure Hagrid is, I have a strict policy about getting involved with teachers."

"Ha ha, you know what I mean."

"Speaking about Hagrid you guys should probably think about going if you want to get to class in time." Ginny said noticing that most of the hall had emptied for class. **I am soo glad I have a free now, no more running off after dinner.**

"Shoot, come on guys, we gotta go." Harry said gathering up his things. As much as he knew Hagrid wouldn't hold it against them for being late, he still didn't like being late for class.

"See ya later Ginny."

"Bye Alicia, Bye guys. Meet you in the common room later."

"Sure thing, I have something I wanted to run by you anyway, so eightish?"

"Okay."

Leaving the hall Hermione turned to Alicia, "What did you want to talk to Ginny about, anything I can help with."

"Oh you know. I just wanted to hang out. I get to see you guys in class all day, but I don't see that much of Gin. Just wanted to see how her classes are going."

"Why do I get the feeling that there's more that you're not saying?" Hermione enquired, a smile tugging at the side of her mouth.

"Ok, so there is, but I just want to check something out first. Don't want to say anything in case I'm wrong, ya know?"

"Sure thing. Is it about a boy, cause I've been saying that she really should start dating. Maybe if we gang up on her she'll give in and finally say yes to one of the many guys that ask her out."

"Why miss Granger, you sneaky little thing you, ganging up on our friend, that wouldn't be very nice. Anyways, I didn't know you were so into dating, is there anyone special in your life or should we be looking for you too."

Alicia was pleased to see that Hermione glanced toward Ron before blushing and saying "I don't really have time to date, what with studying for my exams and all, but Ginny should have some fun."

"Well, we'll see about getting Ginny a fella, I'm sure there are a few prospects. And who knows, maybe we'll get you one while we're at it, how do you fell about tall red heads with fiery tempers?" Smiling she watched as Hermione's eye's bulged and she turned to stare at her. Smirking she continues, "Don't worry, I won't tell him." Hermione relaxed at hearing it but froze in fear when Alicia added the word "Yet.".

"How did you know anyway? No one else figured it out."

"Well I suppose I figured it out cause I just met you guys and I have an outsiders perspective of things. But I'm pretty sure Harry and Gin know but just leave it up to you guys. Their not stupid you know."

"So what you're saying is that everyone knows except for Ron."

"Pretty much." Smiling she turned and noticing they had dropped behind the boys in their conversation started to jog to catch up. "Come on Hermione; don't want to be late for class."

*****

Draco sat looking around the class gathered outside Hagrid hut.

**Looks like those idiots are going to be late, as usual. This class would be a lot easier to hack if Potter and co weren't always late. They don't even get into shit over it. Stupid Potter. Oh here they come, oh no don't rush on account of us your highness, we love waiting for you numbskulls to show up before we can start. Why Alicia would want to be friends with them is any one's guess.**

"Hey Draco." Alicia gasped as she came up beside him, "Man am I out of shape or what! I don't care what people say, exercise CAN kill you." The others seeing Alicia going over to Draco decided to leave them to themselves and went to join the class.

"I wouldn't exactly say you're out of shape, in fact I'm pretty sure a lot of the boys like your shape."

"Hey, that's just gross. (Thinks about it for a second) Ok, just for arguments sake who likes my shape?" She asked as she tried to innocently check out the guys in their class.

"I am not going to feed your ego by telling you that half the school fancied you as soon as you walked into the great hall."

Alicia pretended to pout, "Only half?"

Draco laughed and slung his arm around her shoulder, "well, maybe slightly more than half, I'm not sure how many of the girls are open minded about things like that, and of course the first years can't really be accounted for, their much too young to be thinking about things like that."

Alicia couldn't help but smile at Draco. She was so glad they were friends, they just clicked. In fact other than him the only other person here with the same kind of quirky sense of humour was Ginny, which just made her even more sure that they would be perfect together. But then again there were obviously things she didn't know about Draco, as Hermione had made perfectly clear earlier.

"I suppose. So Draco, can I ask you something?"

Draco, getting the feeling this was going to be a serious question looked at her. **why do I get the feeling this is not going to be good?**

"Yeah, sure. You can ask me anything."

"Why do you hate Harry and Ron and Hermione so much?"

**Yup, not good.**

"It's not really that I hate them, it's more like they bug me. They get away with everything. They could break every school rule there is and they'd still get away with it. It just makes me mad."

"Okay, I kinda understand that, but why do you always make fun of them, I don't really get that sort of impression from you but from what I've heard you sort of bully everyone."

"It's sort of hard to explain, can we talk about it after class, I'll walk with you back to the castle, we can talk then okay?"

"Sure, okay." Noticing a burly man coming out of the hut the class was gathered around Alicia asked out of the side of her mouth, "Is this Hagrid?"

"Yup, and be warned, this guy has been known to endanger the lives of his students on a regular basis."

"I consider myself warned and am ready to face whatever beasts that await us."

**NOTES:**

**What kind of beasts await them, you'll have to wait for 6. Wanna guess lol?**

**5th chappie, I'm so proud of me right now. Won't bore you with small talk, but I will say that the next chap will be up mid February. Please review now. Please, please? Desperate need of inspiration, starting to feel unloved (sniffle) lol.**

**THANKS:**

**WOW: lol, don't worry, I barely understand what I'm think half of the time, I can hardly expect you to. To answer your question about Alicia's lineage, both her parents are muggle borns. I don't think it's gonna get bad though, I think they have a twisted layed back kind of approach in their friendship. Anyways, that's all to come in chap six, hope you can wait that long. Also thank you for reviewing twice, it's cool that you took the time to come back.**

**PAM: see how easily swayed I am? Lol, and I have to agree with ya. All hail the bad boys, but that wasn't exactly were I wanted Draco to be in my fic so I took the easy way out 'want draco to be good, blame the father!' anyways, thanks for reviewing again(yeah me, you came back lol) and I hope to hear from you again for my future chaps.**

PS. I think the person who invented school is long dead, but thanks for the thought anyway lol


	6. attack of the puffskein

**Disclaimer:****    **

 I am not JK Rowling.

JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and all of the characters (minus one Alicia from this story)

Therefore I do not own Harry Potter.

Do you understand or should I say it again, maybe I should use little words lol.

Only kidding, I know all my readers are of high intelligence, after all, you are reading my story and that's proof enough that you're smart lol.

Ok I'll stop now.

****

**Authors note: ** 

OH my god, I hate exams. Just so you all know my exams did not go well. I know I have failed one so far and I have yet to receive the other two results(of which I know I have failed one, but think I have passed the other).

Anyways, this is February's update. I have decided that I'm defiantly going to update at the start of every month, it just works out better and hopefully will mean the chapters will be longer.

Thankyou to everyone who took the time to read this, and I love hearing what you all think(HINT: PLEASE REVIEW!!)

On a different note depending on how things go I may post the start of some of my other fics in the near future, just to see what you think of those, depending of course on how much I have wrote.

So, anyways; blah blah blah…

Thanks at the bottom

**  ** indicates thoughts

Until March.

Yeoldecrazy1 xxx

****

**Chapter 6:**

Alicia stared at Draco who was once again battling against the creature in his hands. They had been split into groups and had each been given one of the creatures to study their behaviour. For the umpteenth time in the last half hour Draco slapped away the pink 'abomination' as it headed towards his face, muttering obscenities under his breath. 

"Oh, no; how ever will we survive this horror?" Alicia said before she started to choke on her laughter, placing the hand on her forehead in a dramatic way she continued, "Help someone, I think Draco's life is being endangered by the evil Puffskein!! Hahaha." Falling to the ground Alicia clutched her sides as her laughter over took her. 

Draco scowled at the hysterical girl who was now rolling from side to side in an attempt to either draw attention to them, in which case she would be succeeding, or in an attempt to get her hysteria under control, in which case it looked like she would be there for a while.

Calmly taking the few paces towards her Draco stood looking down on his friend. Holding the ball of fluff out as if it may contaminate him he dropped it on her head. "You think it's so funny, you take care of the little twerp!"

Finally getting her giggles under control Alicia sat up and calmly took hold of the little ball of fluff and looked at it, "Now don't you worry your little head over it babes, Draco is just like that sometimes, ya know? Sorta cranky, like I am when it's that time of the month. Hey, maybe this is Draco's time of the month." Looking slyly out of the side of her eye Alicia watched as Draco stopped dead in his tracks and turned. "Oopsy, I think we made him mad babes, whatever will we do."

Harry and Ron, who had also been given a Puffskein, were quietly listening to the pair's conversation. They had been trying to see why she wanted to hang out with the Slytherin. Hiding their amusement at Alicia's teasing of Draco, they pretended to be interested in the Puffskein that was in Harry's hands.

"What did you just say?"

"What Draco, did you ask me something?"

"You did not just compare me to some pms'ing adolescent girl, did you?"

"Don't be absurd Draco; of course I wasn't comparing you to a pms'ing adolescent girl. (Draco looks slightly placated but looks warily at Alicia waiting for whatever she was about to throw at him.) I was comparing you to a bitchy whiny good-for-nothing temper-tantrum-throwing stick-up-your-butt pms'ing adolescent girl." Smiling at her witty comeback Alicia bounced the Puffskein up and down laughing as it cooed.

Harry and Ron stared open mouthed at the girl who had just successfully outwitted Draco Malfoy and gotten away with it. Well…by the look on Draco's face she hadn't exactly got away with it as he was slowly turning a red that would rival Ron's hair. As Draco scanned the 'couples' standing in ear shot Harry and Ron quickly busied themselves with 'Harry Jr' as Ron had thoughtfully started to call their little bundle of fluff as soon as he found out that it irked Harry something rotten. Satisfied that none of their classmates had overheard their conversation he turned to Alicia. Putting on a dictator's voice he said "You may have won the battle little girl, but the war has just begun."

Alicia broke into a fit of giggles that covered the two eavesdropper's coughs of shock. This was not the same Malfoy they had known for four years. This Malfoy was, well, a normal kid, who had a sense of humour and could take a joke, as well as, surprisingly, make one.

"Isn't that a muggle saying?" They heard Alicia ask, "Did the great Draco Malfoy just use a muggle saying? I'm surprised you even knew it, don't you detest everything muggle related?"

"What gave you that idea?" Malfoy said taking the Puffskein off Alicia to return to Hagrid. The rest of class had begun to pack up as well.

"Hermione said you call her a mudblood. Therefore one would be lead to the conclusion that you don't hold anything muggle related in very high esteem."

Draco frowned at this and paused for a second before answering. "On the way back to the castle I'll explain as best I can." And with that he headed over to replace their Puffskein in the hamper with the rest.

Harry chose this time to come over and invite Alicia to walk back with them, even though he had suspicions that he would be turned down.

"Hey Alicia, we're heading back now, care to join us?"

"Oh, no thanks Harry, I'm walking back with Draco, we have a few things to discuss. Thanks for offering though."

"Ok, we'll see you later then."

"Yeah, see ya'll later, remind Ginny that I want to talk with her if ya see her will ya?"

"Will do." Jogging over to where Hermione and Ron were standing the group stared back towards the castle. Alicia watched as the group left. Her friends. Smiling she turned and came face to face with a wall of black. Startled she stepped back to hear a rumbling laugh. Looking up she wasn't really surprised to meet the eyes of another of her acquired friends. 

"Invade people's personal space much?"

"Only those I'm comfortable with."

"So that would just be me then."

"Pretty much, come on." Taking her bag from her the pair headed back as the rest of the class had done.

"So…"

"I guess I have some things to explain huh."

"I guess so. So the whole muggle thing, wanna start with that?"

"I've never really had anything against muggle borns (At Alicia's questioning look), ya see, remember what I said about my dad on the train. How he likes to make my life hell, well he thinks that just because he follows some delusional crackpot who hates all muggle borns that he should and by osmosis, I should. I grew up thinking everyone was below me and anyone that wasn't pureblood was scum. I was even taught to hate some of the pure blooded families because according to my father they brought shame to the wizarding name."

"But you don't hate muggle borns. What happened?"

"Granger had a big part to do with it. It's hard to believe I'm better than someone if that someone manages to beat me in all of my classes. Of course my father wasn't too pleased about that, especially when I asked if it was possible that they weren't all that bad, (wincing at the memory Draco rubbed the back of his neck as if remembering old pains.) and you already know about my thoughts on Ginny."

"So you're just going to keep letting your father control you like that? What about what you think?"

"Not on your life. As soon as I'm 17 and of age he wont be able to control my life anymore. I won't even have to go home. I have more than enough money in my vault at gringotts to get a place to live and sustain me until I get a job."

"So why are you still mean to Harry, Hermione and Ron, and well I suppose everyone else as well come to think about it?"

"Habit I guess. With Granger a lot of it's down to the fact that she beats me in everything. And it's not that I don't try, she just always beats me. How much can a person study?"

At Alicia's small giggle Draco looked at her questionably, "What?" 

"So what you're saying is that the thing with Hermione is jealousy?"

"Malfoy's do not get jealous. She more of a constant annoyance really. (Alicia stares at him) I am not jealous. (She continues to stare) Really. (Quirks an eyebrow) Ok, maybe a little bit jealous. (Alicia smiles.) But it's not just that, if my father caught wind that I have no plans of returning and following in his footsteps he'd have me pulled out of here faster than you can blink. He can't touch me after my birthday but until then I have to let him think I'm playing by his rules."

"What about after your birthday which is when by the way?"

"Uh, the 31st of October, do not make jokes! And as far as what I'm gonna do after then, well I guess I never really thought about things here at Hogwarts. I was thinking more what I was going to do after I got out of here. Then again I didn't expect to have any friends this year either and I got you (Alicia smiled and wrapped her arm around his waist). What would you have me do, be all chummy chummy with the dream team, I highly doubt they'd go for that."

"How would you know unless you try?"

"Well nothings gonna happen until November at least and even then, the trio and eye have never seen eye to eye, I don't think they're gonna turn around and go 'hey Draco, were just gonna go outside to practice some Quidditch, wanna come with?' It's just never going to happen Alicia."

Alicia put on her best puppy dog impression and looked up at him, "Pullease Draco, for me? Won't you at least try?"

"Tell you what, I'll be nice to them when their nice to me. After my birthday."

"Deal and no more calling Hermione a mudblood either."

"Hey I haven't used that in ages. I hate that term, stupid dick of a father demanded I take her down a few notches for getting higher scores than me. Wanker. The only reason I said it at all was because Crabbe and Goyle were always reporting back to my dad. Believe me when I say that she won't be hearing that from me any time soon."

"Good, because you do realise that I may have had to hurt you otherwise, what with both my parents being muggle borns."

Turning to her with a look of over exaggerated shock on his face Draco gasped, "Alicia! Are you saying you would actually hurt me, your darling friend, your bosom buddy, your bestest chum?"

"In a heart beat."

Dropping the shocked look he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

"That's my girl."

Laughing they entered the building and after giving Alicia back her bag the pair separated to go to their common rooms.

**NOTES:**

**Another chapter gone, and the next in the works as we speak. Not a lot so far but I am proud to say that I finally figured out my plot, yeah me!! I was sitting typing and I got the worst case of writer's block ever so I decided to sit and write out what I'd done so far and where I wanted it to go and before I realised it I had a layout for the entire fic. Woohoo!!**

**Now all I need to do is get some serious writing time.**

**PLEASE REVIEW NOW!!!LOL**

**THANKS:**

**BOBBYNOTME**: **Yes it did send and I'm glad you're enjoying it.**

**PAM: **I love your reviews, you always compliment me and spur me on(yeah you lol). Sorry it wasn't crabbe and goyle (didn't want them in this story) lol, I burst out laughing when I read that, it would have been so funny. I could even see Alicia screaming and asking what they were when she saw them(yes I'm delusional lol). Anyway, hope you like this chap. I'm sure you'll let me know lol.


	7. Gossip and girl talkpart1

**Disclaimer:** 

 I own nothing but my ever decreasing sanity. 

Sad isn't it?

Feel sorry for me?

Reviews help with the pain of knowing I don't own any of the characters you know. 

And therapy helps with the delusions that I am the great j k Rowling, but that's a different story…

****

**Authors note: ** 

So I was right about my exams, I only pasted one, but I'm over it now lol.

So anyways, I wanted a lot more to happen in this chap but it was just so long and I didn't get everything done so I stopped it at an appropriate place and you'll just have to wait till next month for the rest(cruel aren't I ? mwahahaha…). It hopefully won't be as waffle-y as I think it might be; I apologise if it is.

Anyway, not a lot of news; I have added a little one shot that I'd love to get some feed back on called potions[not very original title but still]. Might get another one up in the next month or two.

Thanks at the bottom

**  ** indicates thoughts

see you all in a month.

Yeoldecrazy1 xxx

****

**Chapter 7:**

"Checkmate."

Harry looked down at the board to see his king hang his head in defeat.

"Why do I still play you? It's been six year and I never win, and I think I'm giving my monarchy an inferiority complex. They don't even put any effort into taking down the opposition anymore."

"It's the Gryffindor in ya Harry, refuses to give up. So do ya want another game or should we get stuck into that divination homework."

"Did you just suggest doing homework? Ok, who are you and what have you done with Ron?"

"Very funny. Ya know even though we make it all up that stuff still takes a while, can you imagine how long everyone else spends on theirs. I just want to get it over with so we don't have to worry about it."

"I think Hermione has started to rub off on you ya know. You're being all responsible."

Rolling his eyes Ron got up and headed over to where he'd dumped his bag at one of the desks, "If I was being responsible wouldn't I be doing it for real instead of making it up?"

"Yeah, I suppose, but if you start to talk about exams and revision then you're headed straight for saint mungos ya hear." Following his friend he too got out his books from where he had left them and the two of them sat down and began to plot their own gruesome deaths for their insane divination teacher.

Hermione, who was sitting on one of the couches reading a book, looked up with a confused expression on her face. Glancing around her she settled back and asked "Did someone say my name?"

Ginny, who was sitting in one of the chairs staring into the fire giggled. "Don't worry Hermione. They weren't talking to you; you can go back to reading your book now."

Glancing down at the book it her hands Hermione sighed, "It would take me five minutes just to figure out were I was." Placing her bookmark at the appropriate page (Hermione thinks it's disrespectful to the books to turn pages down) she closed it and set it by her bag. "So, what's up with you lately Ginny? We haven't really got the chance to chat lately."

Ginny gave a small smile and repositioned herself so she was facing Hermione more comfortably.

"Oh, not a lot; School, homework, dreaming of a life not yet lived (she overdramatically sighs and Hermione gives a small giggle), ya know, the usual. What about you?"

"Oh ya know, the usual; School, homework, stopping Harry and Ron from destroying the entire school. And of course the hard stuff, like keeping on top of my gruelling beauty regime. It takes time to look this good."

Hermione and Ginny's eyes met and the pair dissolved into laughter.

Hermione was the first to recover, "Oh it's been too long since I've talk to a female. Honestly, I love the guys but there's only so much Quidditch talk and chess a girl can listen to before she starts to lose all contact with her female side."

"I know what you're saying; I love Quidditch and chess as much as the next person…"

"Assuming the next person isn't Ron."

"Assuming the next person isn't my brother, of course, but I have a life beyond that and, well, every now and again a girl needs to go shopping. It has to be bad for your health if you go to long without a little gossip."

"Now Ginny, this is me we're talking about. I don't gossip."

Saying this Hermione grinned and Ginny grinned back. Ginny had found that when it was just her and Hermione she was a lot more comfortable, more on equal ground than an outsider, and she had found out something not even the boys knew about Hermione. The girl was very observant, she could tell you things about their classmates that would shock the nosiest gossipers, and tell she did, every single time Hermione knew something she would tell Ginny and Ginny would tell everyone else, but Hermione always insisted that she didn't gossip. Falling into their little routine Ginny regarded Hermione.

"Hermione. Sweetie. Yes you do. You may not be a gossip Queen like Lav and Par but you have been known to spread a bit of news, and I can honestly say that when you have gossip it's usually the best."

"I have never spread gossip Ginny! Name me one instance when I did." Hermione smiled, she was very good at rationalising away what she told Ginny so it wasn't gossip.

"Who told me about Seamus Finnegan secretly dating that Slytherin, Blaize whatever her name is at the end of last year? You know everyone thinks I always have the best gossip cause everything I tell them blows them away. But I get all my info from you."

Hermione looked shocked at the very thought which made a small giggle escape from Ginny, "I did not say that. All I said was that I saw them in the astronomy tower looking very comfortable around each other. I didn't say they were dating. You said they MUST be dating cause that was the only way they'd ever be anywhere near each other and I said you MIGHT be right. See, that isn't gossip, it's chatting and some speculation. And by the way her name is Blaize Zambini and for a Slytherin she's not that bad. (A gleam appeared in Hermione's eye and leaning forward slightly she said in a slightly lower voice)But I don't think their going out any more."

Ginny found herself leaning forward too, "Why do you say that, I thought they were inseparable? They seemed like their usual love sick selves at breakfast."

Hermione pondered this for a bit and then slowly, as if contemplating that she might be wrong said "I know, but on my to care of magical creatures I could have sworn that I saw Seamus holding Pansy Parkinson's hand and whispering something in her ear. I'm not saying there was anything to it but in the past… well… have you ever noticed that any guy Blaize dates ends up dating Pansy? All I'm saying is that it's quite a coincidence."

Ginny jumped up and pointed at Hermione and, trying to keep her voice down said "SEE!!!! No one sees these things until it's too late, but you always do. Wait until I tell G cubed (this is a cute little nickname I came up with for a group called "Gryffindor's Gossip Girls" hence G cubed, you like it?), they will totally love me for getting the scoop on this. So do ya think he's cheating on her or do ya think they broke up?"

"Well first of all I don't think its right for you to go spreading it around like that, for all we know it could be completely innocent. Although I don't think they broke up…yet."

Falling on the couch beside Hermione Ginny took hold of her and physically turned the girl around to face her. "WHAT!!!! Ok, that's it. Tell me what you know right now!"

Hermione looked hesitant as if she thought it was morally wrong to say anything but both she and Ginny knew she just enjoyed having power over her friend. "Well, Seamus and Blaize were standing beside each other in Care of Magical Creatures holding hands like normal, but Blaize kept shooting Pansy these horrid looks and Pansy was just staring back at her with this annoying smug look on her face."

"So what you, um, NOT saying is that if I told the girls now they could have a front row seat for the big break-up."

"GINNY!! That was NOT what I was suggesting. All I'm saying is that if they happened to be in the pairs vicinity around dinner they MIGHT see something, that is if there's anything to see."

"Of course, because we both know that you would never suggest anything like that."

The two girls looked at each other and smiled. Just then Ginny saw Hermione's dorm mates and quickly excused herself and ran over to them. The trio was saw huddled together for a few minutes while the room was sporadically interrupted with gasps from the two and startled shouts of "No!" After Ginny finished her tale the two fifth years looked at each other with identical gleams in their eye's, and as if they could read each other's mind they turned simultaneously and headed back towards the portrait hole.

Ginny returned to the couch and sat down with a sigh. Hermione looked over and had to smile at the look of smugness that Ginny wore.

"Happy?"

"Extremely, you have no idea how exhilarating it is to feed the rumour mill."

"Yes, well… So now that you've had your gossip fix what should we do."

"Catch up. You haven't told me about you summer yet. How did it all go? Where did you go this summer anyway?"

"Well, for the first month me and my parents went to France to visit some old friends there. After that my parents went to morocco and I went to Bulgaria to visit Victor for a week."

"Oh? So how is Victor? I never did figure out what was between you two. Are you dating?"

"Victor great and no we aren't dating, it never really was like that between us no matter what anyone else says. (Hermione glanced over at Ron as she said this remembering the way he reacted to Victor last year. Turning back to Ginny she continued.) Actually at the minute he's dating a really nice girl back in Bulgaria called Sasha. I got to meet her when I went over. She practically pounced on me and decided we were best friends the first day I got there, a bit intense I have to admit but she's absolutely smitten with Victor so I couldn't be happier for them both."

"That's nice, I could actually see him with someone like that, he came across a bit shy so someone outgoing like that would be perfect for him. And it wouldn't have worked out between the two of you anyway, what with him living in Bulgaria, and what with you being in love with my brother."

As Hermione started to choke and gasp Ginny giggled and reached over to pat her on the back.

"You ok? You're not going to die chocking are you; well if you do I could always get Ron to give ya the kiss of life."

At Ginny's cheerful comment Hermione coughed again while glaring at her friend. Regaining her composure Hermione looked around to see if they had drawn any attention to themselves with her coughing fit. Satisfied that no-one was interested in their conversation Hermione turned to stare at Ginny.

"That was cruel you know."

"Yeah I know, but it was fun. If you'd seen the look on your face when I said it; it was priceless, your eyes practically popped right out of your head."

"Yeah well, I honestly didn't think you knew, I didn't think anyone knew but you're the second person today to say something about it to me so I guess I don't know everything. (Ginny clutched her chest and gasped in indignation) you will tell no-one I just admitted that, especially your brother, I'll never hear the end of it."

"Ok I won't, although it would have been fun. But who's the other person that said something to you? Was it Harry, cause he said to me he wasn't going to get in the middle of anything, he was just gonna let you two figure it out on your own."

"No, it wasn't Harry, although it's interesting to know that every one BUT your brother know about it."

"So who was it?"

"Alicia."

"Yes?" came an enquiring voice from behind them. Both girls jumped at the sound and turned to find Alicia looking at the pair with twinkling eyes.

Ginny, after regaining her breath; looked at Alicia with a similar look.

"You know it's rude to sneak up on people like that, you could give them a fright."

"You know it's rude to talk about people behind their backs, they might think you don't like them or something."

"It's rude to eavesdrop, and we weren't talking about you behind your back, you were facing us, we were talking about you to your face." Ginny smiled at her twisted logic.

"Ginny!" Hermione gasped, "We weren't talking about you at all Alicia I swear."

Facing Hermione Alicia smiled, "S'ok, I was only kidding. So how did my name come up in conversation anyway?"

"Hermione was telling me that you figured out about her undying love for Ron."

"I'm not in love with him!" Hermione squeaked looking around her desperately.

"Oh? So you just want him for his body then? Cause I have to admit the boy has a damn fine body if you ask me." Alicia said with a smirk not unlike her friend from Slytherin. Hermione blushed to her roots while Ginny pretended to gag.

"Eww, Alicia may I remind you that that is my brother your talking about? Sentences like that lead to gross, bad mental images. And of course Hermione's in love with him, she just won't admit it, isn't that right Mione."

"I'm not really comfortable talking about that, especially not here."

"Well we could always go up to the girls' rooms and talk there, then you'd have no excuse, and you'd have to tell us everything."

"Yeah, we can have a real girly chat about who we all like and plan how to seduce our prince charming." Alicia said giggling.

Hermione however had gone chalk white at the thought of spilling all the gory details of her feeling for her friend. The two girls upon seeing this looked at each other came to some sort of mutual agreement and both clasped onto one of Hermione's arms each and lifted her of her chair. Hermione only realised what was going on as they started towards the stairs.

"Really, I don't think now is a good time. I have some reading I have to finish before dinner. Oh well, maybe some other time. You can let me go now… you're not going to let me go are you?"

"Nope!"

"This is what friends are for. We can help."

"But I don't want help." Hermione pleaded as they passed the boys table and reached the foot of the stairs. Looking up the boys wore twin expressions of confusion and looked to Ginny with questioning looks.

"Hey Ginny, what's wrong with Hermione? She doesn't look so good."

"Oh, nothing to worry about dear brother of mine, she's just being stubborn about something, we'll sort it all out, everything's fine. Go back to your homework."

"No seriously Gin, why's she so white?"

Just before they carried their friend out of view the boys heard Ginny call back, "We're just going to have a little girl talk."

Turning back to Harry Ron looked confused.

"Why would that make her white, she looked like she'd been petrified?"

"Ron, this is Hermione. She hates that stuff."

"What stuff, Ginny just said they were going to talk, what's wrong with that?"

"She didn't say talk Ron, she said girl talk. That's talking about boys and secrets and clothes and make-up and stuff, like Lavender and Parvartie."

"Oh." Thinking about it Ron stared at Harry. Suddenly a small smile flitted across his face, "OH! She's gonna hate that. She hates that stuff."

"Very good Ron. Did you put in being killed in a rockslide?"

"No, but I did have a wild beast devour me near the end of the month."

"Cool. So you still like Hermione?"

"Yup. Not gonna do anything about it though; she doesn't fell the same way. Destroy a good friendship, so I'm just gonna try get past it."

"Like you've been getting past it for the last year?"

"Shut up Harry."

**NOTES:**

**Wow, this is chap seven, and the fic is over 10,000 words!! Sorry but until this I don't think I've ever stayed dedicated to anything long enough for it to last this long and I have to say that a big part of that is thanks to you all. Getting feedback on my story is just fantastic so I just thought that I'd write and that everyone who has spurred me on with this fic, I hope I continue to get great reviews so I'll have the enthusiasm to continue to write it.**

**THANKS:**

**PAM: **(blushing at compliment- me a great author, aww how sweet thankyou!) Funnily enough I was thinking about furbies when I wrote about the puffskeins lol, glad to see that came across. I actually read all of 'fantastic beasts and where to find them' to come up with the most ridiculously innocent creature there was. Saying as how you like the interactions between the harry potter crew and my delightful addition Alicia I hope this chapter will be to you're liking, even if it is sort of a bridge chapter for the next one, as always I look forward to hearing you thoughts on it.

**NICHOLE MALFOY: **glad you like it, and you never know, heck I don't even really know whats going to happen exactly so stay tuned to see if she spills the beans lol.

**BOBBYNOTME****: **yeah, I just couldn't help it, they just wanted to get along I guess lol, and I don't think Ginny's the jealous-over-friends-type but you never know lol, evil aren't I? anyways let me know what ya think, I just love hearing everyone's views on it.

**GENOA****:** ok, ok not the puppy dog eye's!!! who can resist the puppy dog eye's lol. Hey, that was cruel lol, only kidding. I hope you like this chap, but you'll have to wait a month for the next, it just works out better that way for me. See if I go on every week or whatever I'll end up reading way too many stories and unfortunately I need sleep to function, and need to work to not get chucked out of uni lol. So let me know what ya think.

**NABIKI****:** Hey I just read that I got this review before I put up the update so I had to come and fix it to include you. Thanks, I love to hear that people like it, and I hope you like this chap just as much.


	8. note

Hi everyone.

Firstly thanks to everyone who has reviewed, and I'm sorry this isn't an update.

Bad news; on the 12 of March my laptop crashed, taking with it all my recent work. I didn't know if I was getting any of it back so I couldn't continue work on my stories for almost a month!

I have now got my computer back but it had to have a complete new hard drive put in so I lost everything! I had most of the next chap of Alicia wrote but now I have to start from what I have on the net. To keep me busy and sane while my computer was getting fixed I started to write one of many fics that were floating around in my head. It's all on paper at the min but I'll put it up as soon as it's on the computer.

If this has taught me anything it's that I shouldn't wait to put up everything, so for now on as soon as I have enough for a chap it will go up. This means that it could be days or months between updates but I don't ever want anything like this to happen again.

It might take me a bit to get back into Alicia because I have to reread it and backtrack my mind to rewrite what I lost. 

I WILL CONTINUE WRITING IT!!!!!!! It may just take a few weeks to get my brain into gear. Plus I have exams coming up that I HAVE to pass or I will get chucked out of university and I can't afford for that to happen so I really have to revise.

I hope that you guys can be patient for a bit.

Thanks for reading

Yeoldecrazy1.


	9. Gossip and girl talkpart2

**Disclaimer:**

I refuse to disclaim owning Harry Potter etc!!! Why you ask? Well, I never CLAIMED to own them so I don't see why I would have to DISCLAIM owning them. Therefore this is not a disclaimer stating that I don't own them; this is a claimer (is that a word; oh well) of non ownership of Harry Potter and everything else.

I think too much about really stupid things don't I?

**Authors note:**

MY GOD! IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I WROTE. I just gonna take two seconds and apologise for leaving this so long; it's just that when I tried to get back into writing it my brain just refused to go back and rewrite this chap. But it's finally done and I just couldn't wait to get it up. If it isn't up to standard I apologise but hopefully over the next while I'll get back into writing it.

On a different note; I SAW THE THIRD MOVIE LAST NIGHT FOR MY BIRTHDAY AND IT IS SOO FANTASTIC IT'S BEYOND WORDS!!!! If you haven't seen it yet (yeah right, like there's anyone reading this that hasn't seen it!) go and see it right this second, well, go after you read this chap at least. But seriously I can't wait until it comes out on DVD. I would go and see it again and again in the cinema but I'm not aloud to due to the fact that I was on such a rush after seeing it the first time that I talked about it until two in the morning and rein-acted my favourite parts to the annoyance of my friends and family.

Anyways, got that out of my system so enjoy and don't forget to let me know what you think.

thoughts are now 

Yeoldecrazy1.

**Chapter 8:**

Up in the girl's dorm Hermione found herself unceremoniously plonked on her bed. Sitting up she glared at her 'captors' who, in her opinion, looked far too pleased with themselves. Sighing in defeat she pushed herself up so she was sitting cross legged with her back resting against the headboard. It wasn't that she was against talking to Ginny and Alicia, it's just that she wasn't used to 'girl talk'. She had always been a bookworm without friends until Ron and Harry came along, and they were guys. The closest they ever got to girl talk was freaking over which girl to ask to the Yule ball.

"Hermione, can ya lose the 'I'm about to die' look, we're not going to devour you ya know. We just wanna talk."

"I know. So what do you want to know?"

"Let's start with the easy stuff, how long have you been in love with Ron?"

"um…a while, and that's the easy stuff? That isn't exactly an easy question to answer."

"Yes that's the easy stuff, wait until I start asking you about all the fantasies I'm sure you've been entertaining."

"Eww, that's just wrong Alicia, think of the mental scaring I'm gonna have from that. But anyway, personally I think she's been in love with him since forth year. She was so annoyed that he didn't ask her to the ball and soo jealous when he went with someone else, you should have seen it. They were so cute."

"No." Hermione said from the bed, causing Ginny to frown at her.

"What do you mean no, you were soo in love with him then."

"I know, but that wasn't when I fell in love with him. I've been in love with him longer than that, since first year I guess."

Alicia cooed at the though of her friend falling in love so young. Ginny however looked scandalised; "What? Huh…how did I not know this? Why did I not know this? How did you keep that to yourself all these years? Why didn't you tell me? First year?..."

Hermione sighed, "Yeah, it's sad but I liked him as soon as I saw him, even with dirt on his nose he was still adorable, but I really fell for him when we went down the trap door to fight Quirrel. I was so worried when he got caught in the devils snare, and I thought my heart would break when he got hurt in that chess game; he was so brave risking his life like that so Harry could go on. And I just knew I was a goner when he woke up in the hospital wing and the first thing he asked me is if I was alright, and then if Harry was ok. He didn't even complain about being hurt or anything, it was just the sweetest thing I'd ever heard."

Alicia smiled at the story; "Man, you got it bad."

Ginny still looked scandalised at the thought that she had missed this all these years, then a thoughtful expression crossed her face and she got a far away look an her face. The pair watched as she mentally retraced her memories for clues that she hadn't seen at the time. Not that they would have been able to tell by the look on her face that that was what she was doing, as she look like she was depicting difficult sums in her head; but the fact that every few minutes she would mutter "well there was that one time she…", or "Why didn't I notice that then?" After a few minutes of this in which Hermione and Alicia sat staring at her Ginny came back to reality and looked at Hermione in astonishment. "You really have been in love with him all this time haven't you?"

"Yeah." Hermione said sadly. "Not that it matters. I've tried everything to make him realise how I feel, and he's either completely clueless or he knows and is ignoring it because he doesn't feel the same."

"I'm pretty sure it's that he's completely clueless." Ginny said gravely staring at a point on the floor.

"So what about you Ginny? Anyone special in your life we should know about?"

Her head snapped up to reveal a dear in the headlights expression. "ME?!" she squeaked, her voice more than a few octaves higher. "I thought we were talking about Hermione? Hermione! not me! Nothing important about me lets focus on Hermione! Or Alicia; we should find a guy for you, didn't you say you broke up with your boyfriend right before coming here, what was he like? That way we'll know what to look for in potential boyfriends."

Sharing an amused look Hermione and Alicia nodded to each other making a silent agreement to give her a short reprieve while Alicia talk before they pounced on her again.

"Jake? He was perfect." A dreamy far away look crossed Alicia's face as she recalled her ex. "He was smart, but not too smart. Really sweet, he always gave me little compliments and pressies just because he could. Taller than me but not that tall; ya know the perfect height that when they put their arm over your shoulder you can just snuggle into the crook of his neck? Dark brown hair that you would almost think it was black, and it was always messy, like he'd just rolled out of bed. Now most girls would hate that but I just wanted to constantly run my fingers through it. The bluest eyes you'd every seen. Dimples when he smiled. Slim build, he was on the Quidditch team; chaser, he was the best player on the team in my opinion. All around nice guy who pretty much everyone liked."

"Wow. Sounds perfect all right." Hermione said as she pictured him.

"I second that wow. How come we don't have boys like that here, are all the good looking perfect blokes in America?"

"Oh, I don't know about that Gin, I've seen plenty of guys around here that are pretty cute. And it's not like everyone was like Jake; believe me when I say that it's just as hard to find guys like that in America as it is to find them here. But I don't know if I'm ready to go back to dating just yet, I mean I only broke up with Jake right before coming here because we both knew it wouldn't work long distance. I think I need to settle in a bit before I think about getting together with anyone here. But now that we've heard my and Hermione's stories it's your turn Ginny, so spill; how come your single?"

"Um, we'll the thing is there's never really been anyone that I've liked that liked me back. I mean I've been out with a few boys but nothing serious. And even if there was someone I liked it's not exactly like I'm free to date whoever I want." Ginny said in a sad voice as she hugged her knees and lent back against the bed post behind her.

"What do you mean Ginny; of course you're free to date anyone you want!" Hermione said as she leaned forward from her position on the bed.

"Well, remember when I went to the Yule ball with Neville back in third year. Neville told me later that Ron had had a little 'talk' with him about what was appropriate behaviour as far as I was concerned. Neville tried to tell him that we were only going as friends and, well, Ron pretty much told him that he'd better keep it that way or else he'd have him to deal with."

"Oh my god!! Why would Ron do that? It's not his place to say who you can or can't date. How dare he?! Just you wait until I give him a piece of my mind." Hermione said red in the face. From the looks of it she was just about ready to go tell Ron exactly what she thought of him but Ginny just shook her head and smiled at her.

"It's ok Hermione, I mean think about it this way; Ron's always been a bit overprotective of me; and then after what happened in second year ... He just sees this as his way of looking after me. Well, that and the boy just has too much time on his hands. That's sort of part of the reason why I was always so keen on you two getting together. I always sort of hoped that he'd be so wrapped up in you that he'd lay off me for a while and I might actually be able to have a little fun."

Alicia, who had been thinking about 'Project D&G', perked up at that.

Perfect! If we get Hermione and Ron together first then he'll be out of the way and I can get Ginny and Draco together!

"That's a great idea Ginny. We can get Ron and Hermione together and then we'll work on getting you a guy!"

And in the mean time I can push you and Draco together so you'll realise you like each other.

"Um, guys? Not that I'm against me and Ron or anything, and I think it would be great for Ginny to be able to date, but I've been trying to get him to notice me for years and nothing's worked. What makes you think this time will be any different?"

Alicia smiled; "Well up until now you've been working alone to get his attention. But now you have help, believe me it'll be a lot easier. Plus…I have a plan."

"Why do I have the urge to check for horns and a tail when you get that look on your face?" Hermione said as she began to get worried. "That's the same look you got before you carted me up here."

"And see how well that turned out! Trust me, this will work. Remember when everyone was telling me stories of the last four years, and you guys told me about the Yule ball, and how you went with this guy Victor Krum?"

"Yeah...what does that have to do with me getting Ron? Victor has a girlfriend if you were thinking of using him in your plan."

"Not Victor, but it was plain to see that Ron had serious issues with you going with him so I'm thinking that the easiest way to get him is to make him jealous. So jealous in fact that he snaps and tells you to break up with the guy and go out with him. And voila, 'Operation: get Ron' is complete!"

"Operation: get Ron?"

"Yes. (Puts on dull commentator voice) You mission; whether you like it or not; is to make one Ronald Weasley jealous and ask you out. This mission may be life threatening but we have every faith in you. This message will self destruct in three… two..."

"You know, that might work."

"GINNY! She's talking about manipulating your brother by using some guy to make him jealous!"

"I know; that's why it might actually work. Ron's so emotional that when he breaks he won't even think about embarrassing himself by telling you how he feels. He'll just spit it out. There's only one flaw."

"What? There's no flaw, my plan is perfect." Alicia frowned at Ginny's comment.

"Not quite. We don't have a guy. We can't use one of the Gryffindor boys because Ron would know them and therefore figure out that they weren't actually going out or he would bully them into 'dumping' Hermione."

"I don't think I know any Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff guys that would be able to pull it of even if we could talk them into pretending to be my boyfriend. And Slytherins; although they would be able to act, but there's no way they would because I'm a muggle born."

"But I already have the perfect guy in mind. All we have to do is tell him, I know he'll help us."

"Hey, no fare! I've been here four years and Hermione's been here five and neither of us can think of a guy and you've been here less than a week and you know the perfect guy who you know will help us!"

"Umm…yup!" Alicia grinned.

"So who is it?" Hermione asked.

"Who?" Alicia replied looking confused.

"The guy."

"What guy?" Alicia queried while discreetly sending Ginny a wink.

"The guy who's supposed to be my boyfriend for goodness knows how long!" Hermione hissed as she tried to stop herself from strangling Alicia. Ginny however was trying to hide her giggles as she had figured out the Alicia was purposely riling Hermione.

"Oh! That guy…"

"ALICIA!"

Laughter erupted from Alicia as she mentally congratulated herself on a job well done.

I love doing that!

"Come on Alicia" Ginny said as she gave in to the giggles; "She's suffered enough. Who is this perfect guy you're thinking of?"

"OK, ok…Draco Malfoy."

…

…

…

…

"Um, guys?"

Ginny squeaked something that sounded roughly like 'Malfoy?!' while opening and closing her mouth like a fish.

Hermione sat on the bed with a confused glazed looked on her face… then she fainted.

**NOTES:******

**Might not be my best but it got me to where I was before I lost everything and that's the main thing. I don't have anything after this but I know where I want to go with it so that's a start. Don't know how long it's gonna be but I NEVER want to leave it that long between updates again. In theory I'd like to have this story finish or at least on the verge of finishing by the end of September so I'll hopefully be very busy over the next few months.**

**On a different note I put up a test chapter of the story I started while my computer was down and I'd like to see what people think of it. It however will be going at a slow pace as it's not my main story at the minute. After I finish Alicia I'll be focusing on it. You can get to it and my other stories by clicking on my name at the top of the page.**

**Please review. I've missed hearing from you guys, it's been too long.**

**THANKS:**

**Pam: **lol, I loved this review. I hope you liked the little snippit I put in just for you. I know I made ya wait more than a month but I hope ya liked it. Sorry I couldn't make Draco run around screaming he loves you but ya never know what might happen in the future…

**Glittergrl14142: **nah; their just best buds. This is gonna be a Draco/Ginny story. Glad you like it.

**Writer Gurl4: **hope you like it and sorry it took so long.

**KooKoo****: **No this is definitely a Draco/Ginny story. I'm glad you like the conversations, I love writing them. Hope you keep reading.


	10. but it's Draco Malfoy

**Disclaimer:**I hate to admit it but I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to it. However I do happen to own everything in an alternative dimension where I date Tom Felton and am best friends with the cast. I want to go back!!!!! [Excuse me while I go cry for my loss]

**Authors Note:** Well kids here's the next instalment. Not as big as I would have hoped but it does it's job. I've been so busy lately I haven't gotten anywhere near the amount of work I wanted to have done, and on top of that I found out I've failed two of my exams [I only had three, and I don't know about the other one yet. L ] So now I have at least four repeats in august so I'm going to have to start revising soon cause I can't afford to fail these stupid things. This is just so you guys know what's going on should my writing fall victim to this disaster.

Until the next update, love you all.

thanks at bottom, indicates thoughts

Yeoldecrazy1.

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**Chapter 9: **

Draco had just sat down at the Slytherin table for dinner when he noticed Alicia, Hermione and Ginny glancing over at him and having a heated discussion.

Weird, wonder what their talking about. They're probably trying to talk her out of being my friend. Well, I'm not gonna give her up that easily, she one of the first real friends I've ever had and I'm not going to throw that away just because she's in a different house.

Just then Alicia looked over and gave him a mega watt grin and a small wave. Nodding his head in greeting he gave a small smile of his own before resuming eating his meal.

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"You are so crazy Alicia; this is Draco Malfoy we're talking about here. Now we know that the two of you are friends and everything but there is no way in hell that he will pretend to be Hermione' s boyfriend. He wouldn't even give us the time of day if we asked him. How on earth are you going to get him to agree to this hair-brained scheme of yours?"

"Simple; first I'm going to ask him to do it. Then if he say's he's not sure I'm going to point out that while he's pretending to be Hermione's boyfriend he will get to annoy the heck out of Ron as well as make him incredibly jealous of him. And it's totally believable that you would go out with him because, well, this is Draco Malfoy we're talking about here. If any Slytherin was worth your time it would be him."

"But it's Draco Malfoy…" Hermione put in as she stared confusingly over at the boy in question. She was still trying to get over the fact that this was the plan Alicia had come up with.

"Yes I know. Can you think of a more perfect person to make Ron jealous with?"

"But it's Draco Malfoy."

"He's one of the cutest guys in our year Hermione."

"But it's Draco Mal..."

"YES!! OK, I GET IT. It's Draco Malfoy; can we move passed that point?"

"He's a Slytherin..."

"Ok, as I can see we're getting no where fast let me put it to you a different way; you are the top student in our year right?"

"Well I wouldn't exactly say..."

"Yup, she is." Ginny interrupted.

"And who else is at the top of our year other than yourself?"

"Um, Draco?"

"Yes, Draco. And you're both prefects correct?"

"Yes."

"You both enjoy Quidditch, ok so he plays it and you watch it but still. You both like to read. You both have the great sense to make friends with me…" she trailed of grinning. Hermione and Ginny grinned back and laughed.

"Ok, so you get where I'm coming from. As crazy as it sound you actually would make a believable couple. And you won't have to worry about Draco actually wanting to date you because you aren't each others type, but other people don't know that."

"Ok, I'm not saying it will work; but I guess we can at least see what he says when we ask him."

"Great! We'll get him before he heads back to his common room. But he leaves right after he finishes so we need to make sure that we leave at the same time otherwise we'll miss him."

"Well it's not exactly like we're on a time frame right?" Ginny asked from where she set glaring at the blond. Why was _he _the one they had come up with, ok so he was cute but there were other cute guys in the school.

"What do you mean Gin?"

"Well I mean you've been trying to get Ron for years. So what difference does it make if we have to wait another day to get Malfoy in on it?"

"You know once he's in on the plan you're probably gonna have to start calling him Draco."

"Draco… uuch I still can't get around the idea of me dating Draco Malfoy. It's creepy and weird and gross on so many levels."

"Gross? Ok so it's Malfoy and everything but I wouldn't go as far as to say he's gross." Ginny said as she looked over at the person in question.

Defiantly not gross.

"But he's Draco Malfoy."

"Oh no, she back to that." Alicia moaned hitting her head off the table.

"Back to what?" Harry and Ron asked as they sat down and helped themselves to food.

"You know repeatedly hitting your head off the table could cause serious head trauma, not to mention that it probably won't help fix what ever it is." Harry said as he glanced at Alicia was now resting her forehead against the table and not moving. "Did she knock herself unconscious?"

"Nooo." Alicia groaned as she sat up and rubbed her forehead.

I am so gonna have a bruise there tomorrow.

"Glad to hear it. That wouldn't have been the best thing to happen saying as how it's only your second day here."

"Wow, it's hard to believe you've only been here two days Alicia, I mean it feels like we've known you forever." Ginny said as she slung her arm around the girl's shoulders.

"I know what you mean, I thought I was never going to settle in here and here I am with a great pack of friends already. Sappy as it is I wanted to say thanks to you guys for making me feel at home."

The guys looked at each other uncomfortable and muttered "S'ok" while the girls looked at each other before cooing "aww…" and gathering Alicia in a group hug.

**"YOU BITCH!!!!!!!!"**

"What the hell?" Ron asked as the group looked around for the source of the screaming. It didn't take long for the hall to find the disturbance was coming from a very angry looking Blaize Zambini who was sitting on top of Pansy Parkinson whilst slamming her head repeatedly into the stone floor. Beside them was a shocked and embarrassed Seamus Finnegan who looked frighteningly at the display taking place before him.

"Oh my god, I totally forgot about this!" Ginny said as she looked on at the spectacle. "I forgot about gossip… I think I feel ill…"

"It's ok Gin; we had other things on our mind." Alicia said comfortingly.

(**"You complete[**smash]** and utter **[smash] **Bitch!!**[smash smash smash] **You always do this, why can't you leave me alone?!" **[smash])

"Speaking of that other thing, he's gone. He must have left when all that started." Hermione said as they watched the teachers drag the girls apart. The hall slowly returned to normal as the group returned to their table to finish their meal.

"Well we'll get him tomorrow like Ginny said, it's no big deal."

"Get who? What are you guy's on about?" Ron asked as he shoved another forkful of food into his mouth.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just talking about how Draco said he'd help me catch up in potions saying as how he's the top in that subject. So what are you guys doing tonight?"

"To tell you the truth, I'm completely wiped so I think I'm gonna head straight to bed after Dinner."

"I'm with Harry on that one; today has just been a long day, plus I think I deserve a early night after doing homework voluntarily." Ron said as he pushed away his plate. "We ready?" the group nodded and after saying good bye to some fellow Gryffindors they head back to the common room.

"I'm going to get a head start on some of my homework but I'll probably head up to bed soon as well." Hermione said as she sat down at one of the study desks situated in the common room.

"Ok, good night guys."

"Night Alicia, Mione, Gin." The boy's coursed as they headed up to their dorms.

"G'Night Gin, G'night Alicia, I'll be up soon."

"Kay; good night Mione."

"Hey Alicia?"

"Yeah Ginny?"

"What's Malfoy actually like?"

Yeah!!! I knew you liked him.

"He's a really nice guy. I think you guys will actually like him. That another Bonus to him being 'Mione's boyfriend'; you guys will have the chance to get to know the guy I met on the train instead of the guy you've all known for the last five years. Or at least I hope so."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Why did ya ask?"

"OH, umm no reason; just wondering what you see that we don't." Ginny mumbled looking around distractedly. "So what are you gonna do now?"

"I guess get caught up on some of the reading material I'm behind on, you?"

"Transfigurations; we're suppose to have gotten the hang of a particularly tricky spell over the holidays and I still haven't got it down. Figured I'd practice for a bit while everyone's still at Dinner. So I guess I'll see ya tomorrow morning."

"Ok, see ya then." Alicia said as Ginny entered the fourth year dorms and she headed on to the fifth.

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Draco sat at his desk reading over his potions text. Getting bored he set the book aside he got up and headed over to his bed. Thinking about the first few days of the year he couldn't help but smile. He'd never met anyone like Alicia before, she was so easy to get on with and she actually got his sense of humour that most people just didn't seem to grasp. Then he thought about he friends from Gryffindor. He didn't really have anything against the group but he couldn't really see them accepting him in any way; but then again he didn't think he'd ever be friends with a Gryffindor and now he considered one of them to be the truest closest friend he'd ever had, and to think he'd only met her a couple of days ago.

I guess life just isn't predictable. So goodness knows what's going to happen tomorrow.

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**Note:**

**Please review, I really need to know you guys are out there reading this. I've been so out of it I actually wrote an angst fic!! Angst, I hardly even read angst never mind write it. Now I have nothing against it because it's a very emotional way to write, but I just never saw myself writing it. Hey, if you like that sort of thing go and read it from my authors page,it's called one year, let me know if it's any good lol. Anyway, please review cause it takes like two minutes but I love hearing what you guys think.**

**Thanks:**

**Pam: **ah my faithful reviewer, I don't know what I would do with out your reviews, they cheer me up so much. I'm glad chapter 9 was to your liking. I loved that line too so it's cool to know you appreciated it lol.

Of course you special, all my reviewers are special to me, but you especially. And actually I'm hoping to fit the declaration in at some point, what can I say, you put the thought in my head and now it won't go away lol. As for the friction you're just gonna have to say tuned, but it's not like the guys are going to be sunshine and light about it.

**Meg-goddess: **actually you hit the nail on the head cause I was thinking about getting those two together, but I'm gonna have to wait and see where the characters take me, some times I have no control over them what so ever lol. Hope you keep reading to find out what happens.[yes this is a ploy to keep you hooked lol]


	11. charmed

**Disclaimer:**

Did you guys know there's this celebrity match/biorythems thing where you put in you birthday and pick a celebrity and they give you your compatability physically, emotionally and intellectually. So naturally I put in the hp crew (well the guys anyway lol) and I didn't do too bad with any of them. In fact, me and my friends had this game that whoever got the highest with someone got to 'keep' them, and I got all three of my boys and I said this really weird thing about 'three little piggies, chained to a wall' and my friends looked at me like I was nuts so I started to squeek like a little pig and then burst out laughing.

The moral to this tale is: I may not own Harry Potter etcetera, but I now own three little pigs…

**Authors note:**

I have no excuse for my randomness. Ok, but in all reality I am sooooo sorry. I promised I would never leave long gaps between updating again and stupid real life got in my way again!

I can't even believe how long it took for me to get this up here. I can only throw myself at your mercy and beg for your forgiveness.

So if anyone is still reading this, then please enjoy, and I hope you'll let me know if your still with me.

Love and cookies to you all:

Yeoldecrazy1.

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**Chapter 10:**

shit! Crap! Stupid alarm snooze Draco thought crashing around another corner on his way to Charms class. Skidding to a stop he tried to get his breathing under control before entering the classroom.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, so glad you decided to join us, would you care to explain why you're 10 minutes late for your first charms class of the year?"

"Sorry sir, I slept in. It won't happen again." Draco said as he slid into a seat at the front and tried to look invisible.

"See that it doesn't; and that will be ten points from Slytherin." Professor Flitwick said as he resumed talking about different wand movements. Draco quickly found parchment and quill and began taking notes. Why did he have to miss the start of this class, he needed good notes or he'd never scrape through charms.

stupid class, don't understand how twirling to the left makes any difference from twirling to the right. Stupid teacher too, I mean did he have to take off points, like that's gonna get me anywhere with the stupid Slytherins. Speaking of housemates; I can't believe they didn't wake me up! It's not like it would have killed them to say 'hey Draco get up' but nooooooo I'm sure it's much more fun letting me sleep in and get into trouble. See if I help them with their homework now, oh yeah! Slytherins grades just fell by half hahaha! That'll teach them. Oh crap! Notes! Must take good notes, or steal Grangers. Maybe I can get Alicia to sneak them out of her bag for me. Nah wouldn't want her to get in shit with her gryffy buddies. Maybe Granger would LEND me her notes! Might work, and if not what's the worst that could happen; she laughs in my face, the Slytherins see and laugh at me, they tell Lucius that I made a Gryffindor laugh he finds out I hate him and disowns me or kills me and through it all I FAIL CHARMS BECAUSE I HAS SUCKY NOTES! I'M DOOMED! Ok, MUST get Granger's notes, but how? It must be sneaky, oh wait I never was good at sneaky. Hey what is he yammering on about! Ok, something to do with intent focus while casting the spell, yeah whatever. Oh the class is doing it now, so that's what the feathers for. (Looking at his mangled feather that he had been absentmindedly twirling around his finger he unsuccessfully tried to flatten it out) ok words, words, what were they. Oh Longbottom actually managed it! Ok what did he say "aquatious changille statium" sounds ok, well here goes. I mean if Longbottom can do it, it can't be that hard. OK, FOCUS ON THE FEATHER, DO NOT LOOK LIKE A DICK.

"Aquatious changille statium!"

BOOM!

Oops. This is just not my day.

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"…the importance of the left movement means that the transition will cool the molecules instead of heating them. Now it is important that you not focus ON the feather, we are focusing on what is IN the feather…" 

Well of course that makes sense. How anyone wouldn't understand that is beyond me. Better make note of it just in case. Harry and Ron will probably end up borrowing…look at them; they're not even pretending to make notes. Why I even bother letting them borrow my notes…it's probably encouraged this behaviour actually. Oh, that wasn't in my notes, lets see…and to heat them would…oh my well lets hope that that doesn't happen. Ok so what was I …oh yeah I was thinking of not giving the boys my notes…oh who am I kidding, all Ron has to do is give me that look and I'll hand them over. Well at least Alicia is taking notes, hold on he stopped speaking, what is she writing…project D&G: step 1; observe behaviour when other is near…oh wait she's looking, look innocent. 'I wasn't reading over your shoulder I promise! Yes go back to whatever you were doing'. Doesn't make sense to me anyway, wonder what D&G means. Well it could stand for dating cause she is trying to help me with that, or I suppose it could stand for Draco, well that makes sense. But then the G would stand for me, well that's kind of rude, you would think she would use H for Hermione instead of G for Granger…maybe it's to throw off the boys. They're always reading over your shoulder; that must be it. Speaking of Draco she really is serious about going through with this, I'm actually going to have to pretend to be dating …what the hell is Draco thinking of, he looks like he's bursting a blood vessel…is his eye twitching? Oh great she's setting me up with a psychopath. I'm doomed…oh we're finally doing the spell. Ok, focus on what is IN the feather, it's just a mass of molecules, focus on the molecules…ok now…"

"Aquatious changille statium!"; after a complicated wand movement to the left the feather in front of her crystallized before disintegrating into tiny ice particles. ooh, pretty!

Looking around she saw each of her classmates attempt the spell. Ron's had frozen but wasn't doing anything else. Didn't put enough power into it Harry's was encased in a block of ice, was focusing too much on the feather Neville's actually worked way-ta-go Neville! and almost everyone else seemed to fit into one of these categories. Lavender had some how managed to turn her feather into a puddle of something or other and Pansy Parkinson's feather was trying to fly away. Hermione was trying to figure out how these effects had come about when there was a not so small explosion somewhere to her left.

BOOM!

Ok; who was the dumb ass that twirled to the right?

"Students; remain in your seats! Don't move away from your desks until the smoke clears!" professor Flitwick instructed whilst magically open the windows.

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"…the left movement means that the transition will cool the molecules instead of heating them. Now it is important that you not focus ON the feather…" 

blah, blah de blah-blah. I did this ages ago back in the states. Oh well may as well work on my extra curricula's.

Getting out a piece of paper she put a heading on it 'Project D&G: step 1; observe behaviour when other is near. Look for signs of aquardness and other things that can be used as proof of love at later date.

why can I feel someone watching me, look around discreetly, oh it's Hermione. Was she reading over my shoulder? Oh well it's not like she'd know what it means anyway. What on earth is she thinking, she looks like someone hit her with some sort of, well I don't know but boy does she look weird. looking back at her work she set it aside and waited for the class to begin practicing the spell.

"Aquatious changille statium!" giving the appropriate wand movement she watches as her feather crystalised and disintegrated. Sitting back she watched as the rest of the class attempted the spell. Hermione's worked perfectly as did a few others, however there were one or two interesting results. Looking to see how Draco was getting on Alicia was shocked to see him doing a completely wrong wand movement, but before she could call out any warning the damage was done and the feather exploded.

Oh Draco, you're really not having the best of days. Dumb-ass wasn't paying attention I bet.

"Students; remain in your seats! Don't move away from your desks until the smoke clears!" professor Flitwick instructed whilst magically open the windows.

As the smoke dissipated and her vision returned to normal Alicia wasn't at all surprised to see Draco unconscious on the floor, it was after all the exact thing that had happened to an unlucky girl who had made the same mistake when they where doing this spell for the first time. And if memory served she had to remain unconscious for over a day so her senses would have time to reset itself back to their natural state, the blast having messed with them somehow.

Just then the professor located the source of the blast and was tutting over Draco's lax form.

"Never pays close attention… such potential… going to miss vital classes…" was all Alicia could hear before he turned to the class. "It would seem that Mister Malfoy has decided to give you all a demonstration as to why you always make sure you do the correct wand movement, due to this he will have to be brought to the hospital wing. I trust I can leave you here for the remainder of the class, read over the first two chapters of your text book as we will be covering this material in the next week. When the bell rings you can go. I'm leaving Miss Granger in charge so I trust you'll all behave, Miss Granger."

"Yes?"

"Just make sure they stay in class until the bell goes, and make sure they don't make too much noise." He said quietly so only Hermione could hear, and Alicia who happened to be listening in.

"Ok sir."

Pointing his wand at Draco the teacher left the class, Draco floating along behind him.

Hermione closed the door and turned to the class with a manic look on her face. "You heard him, READ!" Alicia, who had expected the class to start talking, was surprised at the tone Hermione used. She was even more surprised when they did as instructed, quickly getting their books opened to the appropriate page and reading quietly. Every now and then she could see them sending Hermione slightly fearful glances. Turning to Harry who happened to be the closest to where she was sitting she got his attention and sent him a questioning look. In answer he got a piece of parchment and began writing on it. After a few minutes he passed Alicia the note.

_There was an incident last year where a teacher left her in charge and they didn't take her seriously. She got so angry that when the teacher returned she demanded the entire class get a weeks detention for not respecting the teachers wishes for her to be in charge. The teacher couldn't not do it or he would have been disrespecting her too, so we all take her very seriously now, trust me; she has no problem with handing out punishment; even to her friends._

_That's our Hermione, a stickler for the rules.☺_

Looking over at Hermione she couldn't help but grin at the thought of her demanding respect like some sort of drill sergeant. She frowned when she thought about Draco. This being unconscious thing was going to slow down her plans. She had to get him to agree to help Hermione, which wouldn't be all that hard when she told him the complete plan. Then they had to plan so no one would expect anything until his birthday, but it had to look real, and she still had to work on Ginny and Draco. And she was probably going to have to talk to Harry at some stage to get someone to work on Ron when they weren't there. Damn she needed to make another list. Getting out her notebook she opened to a blank page.

_Plan of attack:_

_Stage 1; operation: get Ron_

_Get Draco to help_

_Plan public viewings_

_Plant seeds of doubt in Ron_

_Taunt until he(Ron) breaks_

_Have break-up planned_

_Stage 2; Project: D&G_

_Investigate feelings_

_See how she copes with stage 1_

_Slowly introduce pair to each other_

_Leave them alone as much as poss after 'breakup'(will need help!)_

_Stage 3; take credit!_

_Show them this list; hehehe._

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**Note:**

**So? Did you like it, hate it? Please let me know. I miss hearing from you guys so much, I got an email from a friend of mine the other day telling me to snap out of it and stop reading fanfic and get back to writing it so you have her to thank for this chap. Who knows how long it'll take for the next one, may be two weeks, may be two months, but I've started working on it so hopefully closer to the first one. But seriously, with me; who knows?**

**Thanks:**

**I'm really sorry I know I always put up personal thanks but I couldn't access it earlier to re-read them all and get the names right but I wanted to get this up asap so I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who took the time to review as it means the world to me and I love each and every one of them. Thank you, yeoldecrazy1.**


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